Page 8 - MONTT LATIN AMERICAN MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2021 (English)

Peru: President Castillo Achieves His First Political Triumph
Despite initial reluctance, the Peruvian Congress nally approved the cabinet chosen by the new Head of State, which includes members of the extreme left and even a prime minister suspected of favoring terrorism. On the other hand, more than twenty Spanish multinationals are experiencing a period of great uncertainty due to the possible radical shift in economic policy.
President Pedro Castillo overcame his rst major obstacle as Prime Minister of Peru. Congress nally approved his proposal for a cabinet of ministers with a prime minister, Guido Bellido at the head, highly criticized for being a politician from the extreme left. However, after all he achieved the con dence of the majority of the House, with 73 votes in favour and 50 against. Bellido, his right-hand man, explained the government’s roadmap to the congressmen. To the surprise of many, he did not include the creation of an assembly to reform the Peruvian Constitution, the most debated and controversial proposal with which the new President came to power. Instead he put the emphasis on vaccination and the reactivation of the economy decimated by the pandemic.
The opposition atly rejects a possible new Constitution because it considers that it may be a way to install the authoritarian policies of Cuba and Venezuela in Peru. This argument was repeated in the plenary debate after almost three hours of Bellido’s intervention. Behind all these discussions is always Vladimir Cerrón, the president of Peru Libre, the party under
whose initials Castillo appeared. Cerrón constantly pressures Castillo via Twitter and his political operators to maintain a radical left discourse and place their leaders in key executive positions, despite not always these people are able to meet the requirements of the position.
The President came to power thanks to Peru Libre, but also the nal impulse was given by an alliance with the moderate left, represented by the former presidential candidate Veronika Mendoza, from Juntos por el Peru, a political group to which the Minister of Economy Pedro Francke belongs. , and the Minister of Women, Anahi Durand.
In his appearance in Parliament, Bellido called for unity, but also recalled that the Castillo Government promised changes to its voters, the poor and the descendants of native peoples, he said, postponed in 200 years of republic Independent. “I am before you to invite you to put down our di erences and together contribute to solving one of the most serious political, social, environmental and health crises of the last decades,” he said. The Executive announced that it intends to nish vaccinating those over 18
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